Pakistani Cricket Players

Monday, 6 May 2013

Shahid Afridi

Shahid Afridi Biography

Sahibzada Mohammad Shahid Khan Afridi, popularly known as Shahid Afridi, is a Pakistani cricketer. Between 1996 and 2012, Afridi played 27 Tests, 334 One Day Internationals, and 46 Twenty20 International for the Pakistani national team.
He made his ODI debut on 2 October 1996 against Kenya and his Test debut on 22 October 1998 against Australia.
He is known for his aggressive batting style, and holds the record for the fastest ODI century which he made in his first international innings, as well as scoring 32 runs in a single over, the second highest scoring over ever in an ODI.
He also holds the distinction of having hit the most number of sixes in the history of ODI cricket.Afridi considers himself a better bowler than batsman, and has taken 48 Test wickets and over 300 in ODIs.
Currently Afridi is the leading wicket taker in the Twenty20 format taking 53 wickets from 43 matches.Shahid Afridi has signed to play for the Sydney Thunderin Australia’s Twenty20 Big Bash league.
In June 2009, Afridi took over the Twenty20 captaincy from Younus Khan, and was later appointed ODI captain for the 2010 Asia Cup. In his first match as ODI captain against Sri Lanka he scored a century however Pakistan still lost by 16 runs.
He then also took over the Test captaincy but resigned after one match in charge citing lack of form and ability to play Test cricket; at the same time he announced his retirement from Tests. He retained the captaincy in limited-overs form of the game and led the team in the 2011 World Cup. In May 2011, having led Pakistan in 34 ODIs Afridi was replaced as captain.
Later that month he announced his conditional retirement from international cricket in protest against his treatment by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB); in October he reversed his decision. UNICEF and Pakistani authorities have taken Shahid Afridi on board for its anti-polio campaign in the tribal belt of lawless Waziristan region.

Shahid Afridi

Friday, 3 May 2013

Umer Gul

About Umar Gul

Umar Gul is a Pakistani right arm fast medium bowler in cricket who has played Test matches, One Day Internationals and Twenty20 Internationals for the Pakistani cricket team.
He has gained fame as one of the most successful bowlers in Twenty20 cricket finishing as the leading wicket taker and bowler in both the 2007 and 2009 Twenty20 World Championship tournaments.
Gul was born in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan he was born in a middle-class family and frequently played tape-ball cricket.
People on the street encouraged Gul to become an international cricketer as they saw his superb bowling. On October 2010 Gul's family announced that he was to wed a Dubai Doctor. The doctor is from the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province and she was born there as well.
On 30 May 2012, Pakistan Army raided Umar Gul's house in Peshawar and arrested his brother on the charge of hiding a wanted militant.
In February 2008, Gul signed with the Indian Premier League and was drafted by Shahrukh Khan's Kolkata Knight Riders franchise for US $150,000.
He played in six matches, taking 12 wickets at an average of 15.33, including a player of the match award in Kolkata's final game in which Gul took 4-23 and scored 24 runs from 11 balls.
In December 2008 Gul signed with the Western Warriors to compete in the Australian domestic 2008-09 KFC Twenty20 Big Bash tournament.
He performed very well in his debut match for the Warriors, taking 4 wickets for 15 runs in a losing side.
He was amongst the most successful bowlers in the competition despite not being available for the entire tournament he finished second top wicket taker with 12 wickets.
Internationally, Gul has taken 47 wickets in just 32 games at an average of 14.65, a truly outstanding statistic.
He is the second leading wicket-taker in Twenty20 Internationals behind teammate Shahid Afridi.Umar Gul, after taking five-for in Twenty20 International Cricket, became the first ever bowler to own five wickets haul in all international formats of the game.

Umer Gul

Kamran Akmal

About Kamran Akmal

Kamran Akmal was born on 13 January 1982 in Lahore, Pakistan. He is a fine Pakistani cricketer who has played Tests, ODIs and T20Is for Pakistan as a wicket-keeper batsman. Kamran Akmal has two brothers, Adnan Akmal and Umar Akmal, who are also professional cricketers. He married in 2006 and lives with his wife, Aaiza, and their young daughter. Akmal was marked on to the Rajasthan Royals, and played in the inaugural season of the IPL. He is a quick-scoring batsman and a wicket-keeper, who has got 6 centuries in Test innings and 5 in ODI’s. His form against the touring English in 2005 made him one of the vital players in the team. His batting was greatly fruitful in early 2006 as he scored seven international hundreds within 6 months.

He was dropped for the Asia Cup 2008 consequently of his pitiable wicket-keeping. Akmal was named in the 30 man likely squad for the 2008 ICC Champions Trophy. He was part of the Pakistan team that won the T20 World Cup in 2009. On 17 July 2010, he was chosen the vice-captain of the Pakistani test squad however later removed owing to his alleged involvement in spot fixing. Kamran Akmal has been continually criticized for his lack of consistent wicket-keeping and nowadays he is out of Pakistan International Cricket Team. He played 53 test matches and scored 2648 runs with batting average of 30.79 including 6 100’s and 12 50’s. His highest score is 158 not out. He played 137 ODI’s and scored 2924 runs with batting average of 27.58 including 5 100’s & 9 50’s. His highest score is 124. Whereas, he played 38 T20Is and scored 704 runs with batting average of 23.46. His highest score is 73. Recently he played in Bangladesh Premier League BPL, 2011/12 from Sylhet Royals where he was faultless with his batting, scored 356 runs in 10 matches including 5 50’s.

Kamran Akmal

Thursday, 2 May 2013

Abdul Razzaq

Full name Abdul Razzaq

Born December 2, 1979, Lahore, Punjab

Current age 31 years 41 days

Major teams Pakistan, Asia XI, Hampshire, Hampshire 2nd XI, Hyderabad Heroes, ICL Pakistan XI, Khan Research Labs, Lahore, Lahore Lions, Middlesex, Pakistan International Airlines, Surrey, Worcestershire

Also known as Abdur Razzaq

Batting style Right-hand bat

Bowling style Right-arm fast-medium

Profile:

Abdul Razzaq was once rapid enough to open the bowling and remains composed enough to bat anywhere, though he is discovering that the lower-order suits him nicely. His bowling – the reason he was first noticed – is characterised by a galloping approach, accuracy, and reverse-swing. But it is his batting that is more likely to win matches. He boasts a prodigious array of strokes and is particularly strong driving through cover and mid-off off both front and back foot. He has two gears: block or blast. Cut off the big shots and Razzaq gets bogged down, although patience is his virtue as he demonstrated in a match-saving fifty against India in Mohali in 2005. Just prior to that he had also played a bewilderingly slow innings in Australia, scoring four runs in over two hours. When the occasion demands it though, as ODIs often do, he can still slog with the best of them: England were pillaged for a 22-ball 51 at the end of 2005. and then again for nearly 60 runs in the last three overs of an ODI in September the following year.

Abdul Razzaq

Umer Akmal

Umer Akmal Biodata

Early career

Umar represented Pakistan in the 2008 U/19 Cricket World Cup in Malaysia. After his success at the U-19 level he earned himself a first class contract and played the 2007-08 season of the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy, representing the Sui Southern Gasteam. He is considered a future asset for Pakistan cricket. He is an aggressive style cricketer. In only his sixth first class match he smashed 248 off just 225 deliveries, including four sixes.^[1] He followed that up with an unbeaten 186 in his 8th first class match, off just 170 balls. He fared less well in his second season of first class cricket, with a string of low scores batting at number 3. He found form in the final few matches of the 2008/09 season and then in the RBS T20 tournament thus getting the selectors nod to play for Pakistan A side on their tour to Australia A.

Australia A tour

Umar came to prominence during the Australia A tour in June/July 2009. In the two Test matches he recorded scores of 54, 100*, 130, 0. In the ODI series that followed Umar continued his fine form with a century in the opening ODI encounter off just 68 deliveries. These performances made him gather considerable praise from the media who were there to witness him and calls began to grow about his inclusion in the ODI series for the main Pakistan side against Sri Lanka.^[2]

Test career

Umar Akmal at the University Oval in 2009.

Umar made his Test debut against New Zealand at Dunedin on 23 November 2009. On the third day of his debut test, Umar Akmal hit 129 runs from 160 balls becoming only the second Pakistani to score a hundred on debut away from home after Fawad Alam. This feat also made him the first Pakistani batsman to score both his maiden Test and ODI century away from home, following his ODI century against Sri Lanka. The innings was noted as special due to Pakistan's tough position in the match and the hundred partnership which Akmal was involved in alongside his elder brother Kamran. He followed up the century in the first innings with a fifty in the second innings.

In only his second Test match he was moved up the order to the crucial spot of number 3, where he struggled initially but managed to counter-attack the hostile bowling with his natural flair, making 46 before he was undone by an inswinger by Daryl Tuffey. In the second innings he was moved down the order to his usual batting spot of number 5 as captain Mohammed Yousuf chose to bat at number 3 himself, and Akmal looked his usual aggressive self throughout his innings of 52 which came off only 33 balls. He had his first failure in the first innings of the third test at Napier where he was caught in the gully for a duck but scored a rearguard 77 in the second, promoting him to the leading run scorer of the series. Akmal finished the tour with 400 runs at an average of 57.14.

Umar Akmal's early success was briefly tarnished by a controversy during Pakistan's 2009–10 tour of Australia. It was widely reported that Umar had feigned an injury to protest the dropping of older brother Kamran for the final Test match against Australia. Umar denied such rumors and played in the final match without his brother. He was later fined 2-3 million rupees by the PCB for breaching his contract and speaking to the media without approval.^[3]

ODI and Twenty20 career

In an interview, Umar said "My own dream is to one day play for Pakistan alongside Kamran Bhai (Brother) and I'm working hard to try and achieve that goal".^[4] Akmal was selected in Pakistan's squad for the One Day International Series against Sri Lanka in July/August 2009. Having missed out on the first ODI Umar made his debut in the second match of the series replacing Mohammad Yousuf in the middle order. In only his second career ODI Umar scored his maiden ODI fifty. Umar followed up his maiden fifty by scoring a century in the very next match. For this match winning effort he was awarded his first career Man of the Match award.^[5] His exploits in Sri Lanka earned him a place in Pakistan's champions trophy squad. He played two good innings. His 41 not out against West Indies was a match winning knock and landed him his second career Man of the Match award.^[6] His next big innings came in the semi final against New Zealand, where he scored a brisk 55 in a losing effort, before he was wrongly given out by umpire Simon Taufel, who later apologized.^[7] Despite the fact that Umar Akmal is not a wicket-keeper he kept wicket for Pakistan temporarily in the third ODI against England in 2010 from the 27th over onwards because his elder brother Kamran was being diagnosed for an injury to his finger. Umar Akmal scored 71 runs from 52 balls in his debut World Cup match and was named Man of the Match.^[8]

In February 2012 Pakistan faced England in four ODIs. Pakistan's brittle batting meant the team management chose to play Umar as a wicket-keeper based on his batting, though his brother Adnan was considered the better 'keeper. The result of choosing the less accomplished glovesman was that in the first two matches Umar Akmal missed opportunities to dismiss Ravi Bopara and Alastair Cook early in their innings, and they respectively went on to score a half-century and a century.

Umer Akmal